


Who Did You See in the Mirror?

by Hevheia



Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [11]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27576677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia
Summary: On their travels in search for the women in their dreams, Yusuf and Nicolò come across a woman claiming to possess a magical mirror that can tell them a truth about themselves. They do not expect it to work. They expect even less that it will change everything between them.Part of the The Old Guard Duolingo prompts series: a series I started posting on tumblr where I take random sentences from duolingo and use them as prompts for small drabbles of our favourite immortals!
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952467
Comments: 6
Kudos: 90





	Who Did You See in the Mirror?

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Who do you see in the mirror? ( Chi vedi allo specchio?)
> 
> A humble sequel to [part 3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793172), but it is not necessary to have read that one first!

They did it because they were bored. Because they wanted to amuse themselves. A distraction from their endless search and travels. Of course, it would all be one big scam, but they were both in dire need of a laugh after everything they had been through these last couple of years.

When Nicolò comes out of the tent again, however, he’s not laughing. On the contrary, he looks utterly shaken, eyes wide with a million thoughts rattling behind them. 

“Everything alright?” Yusuf asks, unable to keep the concern from his voice.

“Yes, of course,” Nicolò says, not meeting Yusuf’s gaze. “She’s waiting for you.” He gestures vaguely to the tent.

Yusuf takes the hint that Nicolò doesn’t want to talk about it, and with a last worried glance, he turns away. Dozens of little bells hanging from strings in the doorway tinkle as he steps inside.

In the tent it’s dark and warm with rich fabrics draped everywhere, the scent of incense enveloping him like a lover’s embrace.

“Ah welcome, young man!” a woman says. She is tiny and older than anyone he has ever seen. Creases like dried up rivers run along her face, deepening as she smiles at him. “Have you come for the mirror like your friend?”

_Friend._ the word still stuns Yusuf sometimes, though it is exactly what Nicolò is to him now. Not an enemy, but a friend.

“Yes.” He doesn’t know why he’s whispering.

She beckons him and leads him behind a screen. She gestures for him to take a seat on a cushion in front of a small table with a hand mirror upside down upon it. With a groan, she sits down on the opposite side.

“Give me your hand,” she says and Yusuf obeys.

As soon as her cold, dry skin touches his, she chuckles. “Oh _very_ interesting. Your heart has been silenced, my boy, why is that? Why are you not listening to it? Ah but of course, it is good of you to protect such a heart that feels so deeply. Yet, I think it is past time to start listening. Yes, the truth the mirror will tell you about yourself will be your heart’s greatest desire. Go on, take it and listen.”

Yusuf stares at her for a moment longer with one raised eyebrow. Then he slowly closes his fingers around the mirror and turns it around.

*

They don’t speak of it afterwards. But it is there, the mirror, hanging above them like a rain-heavy cloud. 

While Nicolò is preparing dinner, Yusuf watches him quietly. The efficient movements of his hands, the focused set of his eyebrows. His eyes flicker and gleam in the fire’s glow. Yusuf has found those eyes upon him a hundred times, secretly or not so secretly. He has seen them change. From disgust and hatred over surprise, curiosity and guilt to something else, to- 

Yusuf has never been able to name it, never allowed himself to think it. Because sometimes, when Yusuf is talking with Nicolò and laughing and _happy_ , an arrow of guilt shoots through him like poison, leaving the screams behind of the people he tried to protect from this very man. 

Yet… that man couldn’t seem more different from the man sitting next to him now. 

“The woman,” Yusuf says without meaning to, “The mirror, it was real. It was true.”

Because if there are people who can’t die, why wouldn’t there be people who can read the secrets of another’s soul with a simple touch?

Nicolò doesn’t answer, but his hand pauses as he’s stirring the pot, his shoulders tensing minutely.

“She let me see my heart’s greatest desire,” Yusuf hears himself say. 

Nicolò turns his head to look at him. Yusuf sees that unnameable thing in his eyes again, sees the tightness of his jaw as he waits for Yusuf to continue. 

“I saw a person,” Yusuf says softly, subconsciously inching closer to Nicolò as if he’s being pulled by a string, drawn in by the call of the other man’s heart.

Nicolò swallows, his breath ghosts over Yusuf’s skin as he asks, “Who did you see in the mirror?”

As Yusuf’s trembling hand cups Nicolò’s cheek, Nicolò’s eyes flutter closed.

“You,” Yusuf says, and kisses him.


End file.
